Mozilla is looking to take Apple's iOS and Google's Android operating systems head-on with its own Firefox OS -- and a number of hardware makers and carriers are onboard to help make it happen.

Mozilla announced that hardware makers Alcatel, LG, ZTE and Huawei have agreed to make devices for Firefox OS. In addition 17 international carriers have committed to the new operating system as well, including América Móvil, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, Etisalat, Hutchison Three Group, KDDI, KT, MegaFon, Qtel, SingTel, Smart, Sprint, Telecom Italia Group, Telefónica, Telenor, TMN, and VimpelCom.

As you can see, Sprint and Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile's owner) are the only two U.S. carriers that have agreed to join Mozilla on its new OS venture. AT&T and Verizon, the U.S.' top carriers, are not onboard.

Another issue Mozilla may face in the smartphone OS market is the fact that Samsung has declined to make hardware for Firefox OS. Samsung is the leader in Android-based hardware.

However, Firefox OS has a pretty good chance of competing with the likes of iOS, Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry with its current team of hardware makers and carriers. It also helps that Firefox is already a popular Web browser that people are familiar with.

"Firefox OS smartphones are the first built entirely to open Web standards, enabling every feature to be developed as an HTML5 application Web apps access every underlying capability of the device, bypassing the typical hindrances of HTML5 on mobile to deliver substantial performance," said Mozilla. "The platform’s flexibility allows carriers to easily tailor the interface and develop localized services that match the unique needs of their customer base."

The first wave of Firefox OS-based devices will be released in Brazil, Columbia, Hungary, Mexico, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia, Spain and Venezuela starting this year. Other markets, including the U.S., will come later (likely in 2014).

The first commercial build of the OS will be available at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Whilst Firefox is my preferred browser at home and has generally been doing extremely well in terms of market share, I wouldn't say it's the browser that "Just Works".

Chrome is more stable, although to be fair almost all of the stability problems with Firefox are caused by Adobe. With Flash disabled Firefox is perfect...except for the lack of flash support (I have Firefox hang every day when flash crashes).

Im waiting for Chrome to implement this brand new feature that displays all of your favorites in this very convenient "drop down" menu. Can't wait for it as it will really clean up its minimalism interface rather than having a totally useless and non space saving bar across the browser.